In Oakland’s early halcyon days of the 1870s and 1880s, neatly trimmed hedges of geometric perfection were de rigueur. Soon after Oakland expanded in the late 1860s, families began planting hedges and evergreens. By the mid-1880s, elaborate lot designs of exacting…
On April 6, 1917, the United States officially entered World War I. The declaration of war mobilized millions of men eligible for military service, but the war also had a significant impact on American women. Women enlisted in the military…
In honor of the 150th anniversary of the Atlanta Journal Constitution, enjoy this brief history of the paper's founding by historian Larry Upthegrove: In May of 1868, Col. Carey Wentworth Styles, while attending a convention of the Democratic political party…
James Garfield Eichberg was born in Atlanta on September 19, 1881. James was the ninth child born to his German immigrant parents. His father, Joseph, built one of the first plumbing houses in Atlanta and was involved in the ice…
Happy Preservation Month! I wanted to use this as an opportunity to talk about one of the exciting projects we have teed up in the near future. The Women’s Comfort Station is a small, single-room structure located near the Jewish…
Although fraternal organizations in the United States date back to the colonial period, the growth of these organizations increased drastically after the Civil War. By the end of the 19th century, there were hundreds of fraternal organizations with an estimated…
On a proverbial “dark and stormy night,” I was watching the SEC Championship basketball tournament when tornado warnings began to stream across the bottom of the screen. Simultaneously, play was stopped on the court at the Georgia Dome as players,…
One of the best parts of research is the thrill of finding something completely new. In the past, this usually meant finding a document or image at a library or an archival repository, but now it often means finding a…
From Oakland’s earliest decades, families have desired to enclose their loved ones’ last resting place as their financial means would allow. For some that meant wood, for others granite and iron were within reach. For less affluent families a row…
So often we receive calls from visitors and volunteers who want an ID for the “flowering tree” located outside the Bell Tower, as well as many other curious blooms found throughout our grounds. Besides daffodils, here's a brief rundown of…